GUIDE TO THRIFTING

A Guide to Thrifting

BY Brahmjot Kaur

Shopping for clothes can become a large expense. While fast fashion is more economically beneficial and gives us the low prices we desire, its production is not ethical nor environmentally friendly. However, not everyone can afford a new wardrobe from Reformation or Eileen Fisher, two known sustainable brands, which makes thrifting the next best option. You will not have to shop less because the clothes are affordable and environmentally sustainable. Here are a few spots I visited at multiple different locations in the city. I recommend the locations in Brooklyn because they have a larger selection! This one’s for you, Macklemore.

STOP 01:

Beacon’s Closet 23 Bogart St, Brooklyn, NY The Bogart location has the biggest selection that is accessible to people coming from Manhattan (their biggest store is in Greenpoint, but the only train near it is the G). The store categorizes its merchandise by gender, type of clothing, and then by color. However, none of the clothes are organized by size. Shoes are displayed on top of the racks, as well as on a wall by the pick-up/ drop-off area. They have a huge selection of earrings, purses, and hats. If you are looking for a Halloween costume or something in a particular color, this place will probably be your best bet.

BEST FOR: earrings, purses, hats, formal wear.

STOP 02:

L Train Vintage 120 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn, NY This L Train Vintage is only a five-minute walk from Beacon’s Closet! The store has a promising selection of different coats, including leather jackets, fur coats, denim jackets, jackets from combat uniforms, and varsity jackets. There is also a good selection of button-up shirts and jeans. They categorize by gender and type of clothing, but not by color. They do not have many shoes and their selection of formal wear is scarce.

STOP 03:

Urban Jungle 118 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn, NY Urban Jungle is right next to the L Train Vintage on Knickerbocker Avenue. It is definitely the biggest from the thrift stores mentioned in this article and had the most variety. Urban Jungle also categorizes by gender and type of clothing, but not color. They have a huge selection of unisex t-shirts and sweatshirts. While they do have a large selection of jeans, they fold them instead of hanging them, which makes it tedious to unfold and check the size. It’s especially nerve-wracking if you worry about folding it properly. I’d go to L Train for jeans over Urban Jungle. However, they have an incredible selection of everyday shoes and jackets. Their formal wear section is larger than the one in L Train Vintage but not as big or diverse as Beacon’s Closet.

BEST FOR: shoes, t-shirts, sweatshirts.

STOP 04:

Buffalo Exchange 504 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn, NY Buffalo Exchange is definitely the busiest. It is a tighter space than the other stores, but the line of people waiting to drop off clothes makes the selection promising. The clothes are categorized by gender, type of clothing, then size! While the selection is not as abundant as the one in Urban Jungle or Beacon’s Closet, the categories for size make finding something that fits you more likely. Their everyday shoe collection is smaller compared to the other stores, but they sell an incredible selection of eclectic shoes, like neon flame heels! Also, their earrings and sunglasses are just as cool as Beacon’s Closet but cheaper!

1. Vintage sizes are different than modern sizes! Vintage sizes are about four to six sizes smaller than modern sizes. A size 14 from 1960 will most likely be a size 8 now. So, be mindful of that. 2. Ladies, consider looking for things in the men’s section! If you’re into streetwear, it is especially helpful to look there! Men’s t-shirts, sweatshirts, and sweatpants are so easy to find in thrift stores and because men’s sizes run bigger, it’ll be much easier to find those. 3. Talk to an employee! While I didn’t see a dedicated space for plus-size clothes, all the employees were friendly and more than happy to help. Ask if they saw any clothes that you might feel comfortable wearing. They might even tell you they know there aren’t many pieces and that could save you the frustration of not finding anything in your size. 4. Try everything on! Even things that aren’t vintage-sized can fit strangely. Companies have their own standards for measurements in sizes and that can make it difficult to know from a glance. Try on the clothes and accessories! BEST FOR: eclectic shoes, casual clothes, earrings, and sunglasses. TIPS FOR PLUS SIZE PEEPS!

NYPD MTA in the

WORDS AND PHOTO BY Jaquel

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“NO NYPD IN THE MTA!”shouted the crowds that flooded the subways and streets of downtown Brooklyn. The riots were likely incited by a now viral video of New York City police officers pointing their guns at a full subway cart to detain a teenager that had jumped the turnstile. In an effort to crackdown on fare evasion, police have begun to take action. However, these practices ignore what is at the crux of the issue: not everyone has the $2.75, daily, for both directions, to pay the current MTA fare. Presently, one in five New Yorkers are living below the poverty line, and the population of the working poor continues to rise. The protest in Brooklyn illuminated and condemned the racist patterns of arrests, with one of the chants being, “How do you spell racist? N-Y-P-D!”

Between April and June of this year, there has been a total of 15,820 summons and 682 arrests for fare evasion. Despite an overall decline in arrests when compared to last year’s records, it is evident that the Black and Latinx communities are most vulnerable to persecution. Out of the total number of people receiving a summons, 6,110 were Black and 5,154 were Latinx, compared to only 2,846 of their white counterparts. Further, of the total arrests, a disproportionate 414 detainees were Black,175 were Latinx, and 76 were white.t Of those persecuted, 40.4% were 18-24 years of age, those aged 25-40 made up 37%, and another 15% were between the ages of 41-59.Many of these cases are of students, young adults, mothers, and fathers living paycheck to paycheck forced to pick and choose where to allocate every last hardearned dollar. At the 125th station in Harlem, a mother and her two daughters must wait, hoping to be swiped forward (the term given to earn a ‘swipe’ through the turnstile by a generous subway-goer with an unlimited metro-card).

At the same station, a student looks out for police before jumping the turnstile, the $2.75 fare lying in between him and the train that he takes to get to work. allow police officers to profit off the crisis and, by extension, the plight of New York City’s poorest minorities, fare hikes of 4% between 2021 and 2023 can be expected. Increasing NYPD’s presence in the subways is an insubstantial and ineffective solution that fails to address the deep-rooted issue looming: poverty. These prosecutions will only exacerbate the problem, leaving the most vulnerable communities of New York City, many of them over-populated with poor-working class minorities, to face the brunt of ‘transportation injustice’ exacted by an MTA that is failing us.

Another student frustratedly, but honestly, shared with me, “I’m a full-time student, I support myself, and prefer not to have to choose between a $2.75 fare or breakfast”. “Trust me, I wouldn’t be jumping the metro if I didn’t need to,” stated another student. Through social media, the city’s youth have adopted practices to protect one another from prosecution. Students’ social media stories warn, “Police at 145,” and “Careful everyone, police at 116th.” “Together , we can make a better system.” Need To

People tweet to inform about the legality of such practices as “swiping it forward,” as the phenomenon has been coined. It is through these media platforms that people can express their concerns about recent actions taken to combat fare-evasion and take issue with the resources that have been allocated by the NYPD and MTA. For example, the MTA hired 500 additional transit police officers, for whom salaries start at $42,000, with the potential to rise as high as $100,368. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. is funding these officers for the first four years, pooling from a $40 million allocation that has been made. While resources Thank you for riding.

At the Intersection of “Excellence” and “Equity”: A recent history of Admissions at City College BY Er B la a d Matt ew Roma o

Preface : At the 1849 inauguration of the Free Academy (now known as the City College of New York), the institution’s first President, Dr. Horace Webster, famously described the first free institution of public higher education as an experiment created to serve the “children of the whole people.” Now, with over 150 years of history, it is not surprising that this term has experienced several periods of definition, redefinition, manipulation, vociferous liberal interpretation, and a more conservative brand of constraining perspective. By mapping these two interconnected and opposite eras in CUNY and CCNY’s recent history (the open admissions era of the 1970s and the remediation debate of the late 20th to early 21st century), we hope to expound the complex, ever-changing, yet deeply entrenched relationship that our historical institution shares with this foundational tenet of our educational philosophy. Finally, as we embark on a new decade, we look to the past, present, and future role of CUNY as, “committed to academic excellence and the provision of equal access and opportunity…” (emphasis added).

Early 1960

Mounting political and racial tensions during this period led to a rapid paradigm shift in the concept of “the university” within American academia. Universities across the nation began to subscribe to the notion that the classroom could be used to achieve more than just education. As a result, higher education quickly morphed into a vehicle for combatting social turbulence within urban cities by improving minority enrollment. Admission requirements in America would be shaped by this new model over the following three decades, particularly within the CUNY system.

1966

1970 The surge in student activism throughout the latter half of the decade coincided with the Civil Rights Movement, as well as the widespread opposition to the United States’ participation in the Vietnam War. On City College’s campus, African-American and Puerto Rican student protestors, along with their Caucasian cohorts, clamored for the institution to introduce affirmative action programs that would effectively raise minority enrollment totals.

In compliance with student demands, CUNY’s first affirmative action initiative was established in 1966 in the form of the SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge) Program. Still running strong today, the program provides, “economically disadvantaged,” and “academically unprepared,” students with the support services needed to succeed in college. Following the 1969 student occupation of City College’s south campus, the University’s immediate response was to implement an “open admissions” policy, which granted every New York City high school graduate, who had either maintained an 80% grade point average or finished within their class’ 50th percentile, entrance into CUNY’s senior colleges. Though then-City College President Robert E. Marshak claimed that the open admissions policy was the, “most complicated, controversial, [and] long-term issue,” confronting the institution during his tenure, CUNY hypothesized that the policy would afford academic opportunities to large quantities of students from low-income households. This prediction was ultimately correct, which was reflected in the statistics regarding the ethnic breakdown of freshmen classes at City College between 1969 and 1971. In two years, African-American enrollment escalated from 149 to 804 students (a 16.5% increase), while Puerto Rican enrollment also grew from 86 to 318 students (a 9.9% increase). Student concerns regarding tuition charges were prevalent as early as 1966